Mad about Mushrooms . . .

Ton Kiang Dim Sum Restaurant - San Francisco, CA

It seems that we've set a tradition of visiting wildlife and family in California in January, and this year was no exception.  We spent a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium participating in the "Feeding Frenzy" optional tour and were mesmerized by the jellies and seahorse exhibits.  Traveling further down the coast, we arrived at the Elephant Seal Viewing Point at Piedras Blancas (just north of San Simeon and Cambria) where vocalizing female elephant seals and their newly born pups populated the beach.  Pismo Beach's Monarch Butterfly Grove was our next stop, and we were enchanted by the thousands of butterflies that clung to the eucalyptus branches in the early morning cool air.  A little south of town we visited the towering, Lawrence of Arabia-like sand dunes before heading back up to San Luis Obispo for a delightful evening with family.  The final stop on our excursion was a drive through the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge, which provides habitat (resting and feeding areas) for more than 40% of the Pacific Flyway's wintering waterfowl, and typically has about a bazillion snow geese.   Not that day, though; it was beautiful and clear, and what geese there were, for the most part, rafted up well out of good camera range.  We'll try again next year. 

It might be a little hard to say what was our favorite wildlife sighting on this week long trip (guests at the aquarium, elephant seals and their pups on the beach, Monarch butterflies clinging to eucalyptus branches, clouds of waterfowl landing in the refuge),  but there's no doubt that the Ton Kiang Dim Sum Restaurant in San Francisco would top the list of newly discovered eateries. 

You're sure to be delighted with Ton Kiang's dim sum. 

Garden View Restaurant, Oregon Garden Resort - Silverton, OR

Think of the perfect mushroom appetizer, and you're probably thinking of the Forest Mushroom Rhapsody proudly served at the Garden View Restaurant at the Oregon Garden Resort.  It's plump with sun-dried tomatoes and seasonings folded into a medley of oyster, shitake and cremini mushrooms and encased in filo dough...truly a remarkable visual and taste treat!

For an entree, I selected the half duck, and it arrived with a delicious and seasonally appropriate cranberry sauce and red potatoes.  Steven's prime rib was a generous portion cooked to perfection and accompanied with red potatoes and very forgetable vegetables.  Dessert?  No way.  After 2 helpings of the delicious crusty rolls, Steven and I found ourselves carrying take-out boxes filled with generous portions of our entrees back to our room to be savored at a later time.

Silverton's freezing fog couldn't stop this fungal fruiting in the Oregon Garden. 

Bistro Maison - McMinnville, OR

My most vivid memory of the lovely Bistro Maison is that they taught me something about mushrooms that directly contradicted a strong and long-held opinion.  More about that in a moment.

Bistro Maison is a cozy, warm and friendly French restaurant in the city of McMinnville, in the middle of one of Oregon's best wine-producing areas and an easy drive from Portland and Salem.  It's not pretentious, as French restaurants can often be.  And we found it almost by accident.  It was early in December, 2010, and we'd initially gone to another restaurant nearby, but had been put off by a wait, a diffident greeting at the door, and high prices on a chalk board menu (they had no printed ones) that we found uninspiring.   No, we won't identify the place; we only publish favorable reviews, because restaurants can and do go through rough patches, and possibly that was the case here.  But on this night, we decided to go elsewhere.

So a few minutes later, we were standing outside Bistro Maison, reading the display menu.  And a passerby stopped and asked, "Are you going to eat there?"  We said we hadn't decided yet.  "You should," he replied.  "You won't be disappointed!"  An unsolicited recommendation is almost always a good portent.  "OK," we shrugged, and in we went. 

 

Bistro Maison was the venue
for a lovely French meal during the holidays. 

La Rambla - McMinnville, OR

Located just 35 miles southwest of Portland, the city of McMinnville has a lot going for it.  There's the Evergreen Aviation Museum, with the "Spruce Goose," another 200 or so aircraft and exhibits, IMAX theatre, and, of course, the newly opened Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark.  There's also Linfield College with its 1,700 person student body pursuing a liberal arts curriculum in the private facility which was chartered in 1858.  And then, there's the fact that McMinnville is located in the heart of Oregon's wine country, which is blessed with a long, moderate growing season that produces exceptional wine grapes.

We weren't in McMinnville to sample any of these assets.  We were there to sample the cuisine, and our first stop was the lovely and unique restaurant and bar, La Rambla, with its northwest-inspired cuisine from Spain.  Located in the historic Schilling Building, LaRambla has as an impressive  interior:  a beautiful wood entrance, dark mahogany, a copper-topped bar, original artwork, and a multitude of gorgeous, hand-blown light fixtures.

The hand-blown light fixtures are stunning. 

Anna's (revisited)

A play performance in nearby Gold Beach gave us an excuse to re-visit Anna's, an old favorite we hadn't been to for quite a while.  As before, we were glad we went, and scolded ourselves for taking so long.

The brief menu - which varies with the night and owner "Cookie's" mood - featured "Quack - Single Lobe Duck Breast, oven seared to medium rare, served with Potato Puffs and Slathered with Chanterelles."  I read no further, having made my decision.  I didn't regret it.  The duck was done to perfection, moist and juicy, and the chanterelles were just right.  A nice Pinot Noir was the perfect accompaniment. 

  

Baked Alaska

Perched on an Astoria pier looking out at the mighty Columbia River near its entrance to the blue (or, more often, gray) Pacific is a unique restaurant, Baked Alaska.  The view is lovely, and so is the food.  An innovative menu with imaginative pairings will make your choice a complicated and agonizing one.

There always has to be a noteworthy mushroom dish to be included here, and this one was a beaut: "Crab and Mushroom Sambuca Carbonara," described as "Crimini and oyster mushrooms sauteed with sweet onions, bacon, garlic, parsley and crab meat, in a light Sambuca reduction sauce over fresh fettuccini."  Our mouths began to water as we read it.

What a spectualar setting.

Cafe Zenon

A quick mid-may trip to Eugene, Oregon (home of the University of Oregon Ducks!) gave us the opportunity to try a restaurant that had been recommended by a friend:   Cafe Zenon.  We're glad we did.

The downtown street corner location offers dining outside in good weather, not the case when we were there, unfortunately.  The menu was innovative, with lots of interesting edibles to entice us.  We opted for a pair of appetizers to start with.  One was Samosas, which were described as "East Indian fried pastries stuffed with curried potatoes, zucchini, peas, shallots and yogurt, served with cilantro chutney."  These were interesting, and we liked the chutney, but we had enjoyed some very authentic Samosas before that contained lamb, and found them a lot more to our liking than the vegetarian version served here.

The Cafe also has streetside dining.

Bonsai Bistro

It was the third night of the early May conference at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in Idaho that we chose Bonsai Bistro for late night dining.

I had spent the day in workshops and seminars while Steven had been out scouting for morels and helvellas.  At the end of the day, we were both ready to relax and be refreshed in the quiet surrounds of this lovely eatery that's within easy walking distance of the Resort.   We chose to dine upstairs, where a traditional rock garden is the focal point of the room.  The Bistro also boasts a waterfall and stream surrounding their enclosed outside dining area, along with a downstairs dining room which features tables on a central island surrounded by a koi pond. 

Tito Macaroni's

The first part of May found us at a conference at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in Idaho.  This conference focused on rebuilding and reinvesting in rural America.  We heard nationally recognized and innovative speakers address a multitude of critical issues.

While I was attending workshops (one in particular put on by the futurist, David Zach, was absolutely outstanding!  If you ever have a chance to hear one of his presentations, by all means, take advantage of it!), Steven set out to explore for morels and Montana helvellas.  His initial stop at the Forest Service ranger station brought discouraging words:  it's too early and it's too cold.  Undaunted, Steven explored around the lake and up into the hills.  His fungal reward:  a handful of  morels, and another handful of helvellas.  Certainly no bonanza, but enough reward under the adverse circumstances, and  more than enough to make a lovely morel entree upon our return to Port Orford.

Willamette Valley Grill

Salem, the Oregon state capital, seems to support a higher number of quality restaurants than other cities its size, and when our travels take us there, we're often inclined to branch out and try some place new.  So it was on a recent trip, when in a quick search of the web, the Willamette Valley Grill caught our eye.

At first glance, we had some reservations.  It refers to itself as "Salem's Finest Steakhouse," (a title it may actually deserve, as it turns out) but the steakhouse genre sometimes doesn't equate to real gourmet cuisine, and is frequently rather predictable.  We often feel that we can cook a perfectly good steak at home, and search for something a little different.

What an elegant entrance to the restaurant!